The journey of one young woman learning to run a creative business with a DIY attitude.

Tag Archives: house

Over the past couple of weeks, Brad and I have been putting all of our time and effort into getting this basement finished and liveable. I’ve really been neglecting my work-at-home situation to get it done, and Brad has been heading over to the new house to work every day before or after work, depending on the shift he’s on that week. Slowly but surely, it’s coming along quite nicely! It is very time consuming, and yet easier than I had expected! I’ve decided to make this brief checklist and game-plan for anyone who may be interested doing a little basement work. I hope this helps!

Electrical wiring
Luckily, this step was completed before we moved in, therefore we have utility boxes along the west wall of the room. Rather than covering these up with a wall, we will be creating a floating shelf along the entire wall to encase the electrical outlets.

Deep cleaning
After removing all of the debris from the room, clean every inch of the walls and floor with bleach. We also cleaned the ceiling with a toilet brush, with the intention of leaving it exposed.

Sealing off leaksThis is an issue for many basements, as many conditions are required to keep a basement leak-free. This article on The Money Pit is very informative and includes a few suggestions for fixes.

Staining/finishing the ceilingThere are many other options for ceilings, but we decided to tear out the insulation and leave our bare ceiling exposed for a more rustic feel. If you intend on doing this, it’s a good idea to remove any staples or nails that may have been used to attach the insulation. A flat-head screwdriver works well for this.

Priming & painting the walls

Painting the floorBecause our room has a fireplace along one wall, we have purchased a carpet that will leave this area of the floor exposed, and have decided to paint the non-carpeted areas.

Laying the carpet

To be completely honest, we are cutting some small corners here and there budget-wise. This has actually resulted in taking us more time to get everything done. Specifically, we have to stain the entire ceiling before we can lay any kind of carpeting, and it’s incredibly tedious.

We are also faced with the challenge of creatively hiding the exposed wiring and cables that run through the basement, and we have a very interesting idea planned for these as well! There happened to be a giant wood-burning stove in the middle of the floor with a chute that goes right up into the fireplace, and a week or two of firewood stacked along one wall, among other things.

At first I was worried that this room would be never be finished or fit for humankind, but now when I close my eyes I know it will be the beautiful modern yet rustic masterpiece that I’ve dreamed of. While this list certainly covers many of the basics, I have so many design ideas to put in motion! I’ve made a Pinterest board specifically for this project titled The Basement-to-Bedroom Project, so be sure to check it out to get a better idea of my design and follow along! I haven’t posted all of my ideas & inspirations just yet, and I’m sure I will continue to keep it updated with more projects that I’ve got in mind after the basement is liveable. Thanks for reading, internet!

I’m excited to announce that Brad and his family and I are moving! The property is nothing short of wondrous and has been well kept, but it still needs a bit of love to make it liveable. We’ve all been putting very much time and effort into restoring this charming house into the beautiful space that we envision it once was.

The front yard, however, is not the focal point of the property. Behold the view from the living room window.

This sparkling pond is also located on the property, as well as acres and acres of land on which we can explore, hunt, or fish, if we so choose. The well on the right of the photo has a small garden sitting atop it, which protects both the garden from being eaten by small mammals, and also small children that may be thrown into the well.

Brad and I are currently working on finishing the house’s basement. This will allow me to have a studio/craft room outside of our bedroom! I can’t wait! Our ultimate goal, however, is to move the two of us into this lovely little cabin just to the right hand side of the pond.

This is going to be a much bigger job than the basement. It’s completely gutted and at this time it appears that it’s being used as a tool shed. This doesn’t stop me from picturing myself waking up and enjoying a cup of coffee on that porch and overlooking the pond every single morning for the rest of my life.

So this is what’s been keeping me busy this week. The good news is that it’s got me brainstorming a bunch of DIY posts!

The bad news is that it seems I’ll be putting off shifting my blog to Blogger, as I discussed in My Break-Up with WordPress just last month. I’ve still got quite a bit of fine-tuning that I’d like to do before the blog move, which will have to wait until I get settled in after the house move.

While I’ve certainly got a lot on my plate right now, I’m definitely going to be showing off some before, during, and after shots along the way. Thanks for reading!